Reminders
by LucyLuna
Summary: While running an errand for his father in Diagon Alley, Remus gets a glimpse into the life and family of one Severus Snape. AU. Part V of Family Branches. One-Shot.


_Reminders_

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Remus took in the bustle and excitement-tinged air of Diagon Alley with nostalgia-colored eyes. It was nearing the end of August and the number of families shopping with their Hogwarts-aged children for the start of the school year overwhelmed the Alley's typical crowd. Seeing the young, fresh faces all around him reminded Remus of fond memories from his own boyhood and the irrepressible joy he felt as he shopped for his textbooks and wand for the first time. The laughter, the smiles, they brought back memories of him and friends from when they were young; from before the world turned upside down on them and stole away their innocence and mischief and lives.

His heart panged at the thought of his lost loved ones. James and Peter were dead. Sirius as good as. All that was left was Remus; it made him feel far older than his twenty-seven years. He was already an old man with nothing but memories to his name. Staggering from the sudden melancholy crushing his heart, Remus stepped off to the side and took a seat at one of the tables outside of Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlor. He breathed in and out, looking through his fingers at the activity around him.

All the fond feelings that had him smiling but a minute ago were now gone. He felt as if a Dementor had swooped down and attacked him, he was suddenly so tired and sad. Remus sighed and scrubbed a hand across his face. Perhaps it was best he kept his head down the rest of the way to Mulpepper's Apothecary. All the cheerful families around him no longer felt pleasing, but painful to be around. As Remus was to rise to his feet, however, the chime of the parlor's door caught his attention. Out of the corner of his eye, he looked to see who was coming out. The sight caused Remus to do a double-take.

He could scarcely believe what he was seeing. It was Severus Snape, but he was not alone. With him, he had a blonde girl of about eleven, a pretty, toeheaded baby on his hip, and peaking out on the other side of Snape appeared to be another little girl – four or five, he would hazard. Remus gaped at the group. The girls old enough to walk were eating their ice cream with laser-focused delight and Severus was so absorbed in helping the baby he was holding to eat from a cone he had in his hand, not one of the group noticed his staring.

The oldest girl paused briefly in eating her sundae to look up at Severus and ask, "Can we go to the Menagerie before we go home?"

Snape didn't look away from the baby in his arms. "Only to look," he replied.

A sulkiness overcame the blonde's face, which Snape seemed to pick up on even though he was not looking at her. "Edie and I already told you. You could have one or the other and you picked the broom. You will not be getting a familiar this year Darla, no matter how much you pout."

'Darla…' thought Remus. The name sounded familiar. He was almost certain Lily had mentioned someone named such before she died. Could this girl here be it? How had Lily known about her? She and Snape hadn't been friendly since their fifth year at Hogwarts and this girl was most certainly born after the two's friendship ended. Or… At least that was how the thought things were with them. Had he been wrong? Had Lily lied to them all? To James? _Her husband_? His stomach gave a sudden flip. Remus didn't like the rabbit hole he had suddenly found himself in. However, before he could go too far into it, the Snape family drew him out of his turmoil once more.

The girl, Darla, puffed out her cheeks. "Rats aren't _that_ expensive–"

" _No_ ," he snapped. "One more word from you about familiars and I will hex you, girl."

Remus was taken aback by the threat, but Darla only rolled her eyes. Digging into her ice cream with a renewed vigor, she grumbled, "You're the worst brother _ever_."

Snape finally looked away from the baby in his arms. "If that is so, perhaps you do not need to see the Bones boy you befriended at Malkin's before the start of the school year."

Darla looked absolutely horrified at the thought. "Oh, please, Severus! I promised Stephen we could fly around on the Pitch before anyone else in our year! I don't want him to think I'm a liar!"

He narrowed his eyes at what now Remus could only assume to be his younger sister.

The blond girl deflated where she stood. "I'm sorry," she mumbled.

Immediately, most of the sternness drained away from Snape's countenance. He gave Darla a small nod and said, "You are forgiven." Then, he told her, "Would you take out your handkerchief and help Essie clean her face? My hands are occupied." And, as if to make his point even more damnable, he gave the baby on his hip a bounce. "Calliope will surely throw a fit should I take her ice cream cone from her before she is finished."

Darla laughed in response. Remus watched in fascination as the girl knelt down and pulled a handkerchief from her robe. A moment later, he finally got a good look at the other little girl when Darla gently pulled her face forward to wipe it clean. She looked very much like Snape, from her black, stringy hair to her pale skin to the slightly too large hooked nose protruding from her face. Remus was sure that she and the baby in Snape's arms were his daughters.

"There!" she proclaimed a moment later, smiling. "You look like a little girl again," she teased the child.

In response, Essie smiled.

Severus cleared his throat. "Right," he said. "Shall we go?"

"Yes!" the pair chorused.

As they began to move out of Remus's line of sight, he heard with his far keener than typical hearing Snape say to his sister, "If you do well during your first semester at Hogwarts perhaps Edie and I will consider a familiar for Christmas."

"Do you mean it? Oh, Severus!" the blonde girl exclaimed with pure bliss. "How could I have ever called you the worst brother ever?"

"It is beyond me," he replied, voice lilting with obvious amusement. "Now, remember, the ice cream is to be a secret. It would upset the twins if they knew I took you for some without them…"

Remus let out a breath he had not realized he was holding. Twins. Snape had more children somewhere. He couldn't believe it. Who in their right mind had fallen for the sour man and even had _children_ with him? He was so incredulous he nearly went into denial, but, then, Remus began to replay the last few minutes over in his mind. From the little he had seen, Snape had been a good father and brother. Attentive to his youngest, but aware enough to know his older daughter needed assistance with cleaning up her face. He'd handled his sister throwing a strop rather expertly as well (though, Remus still felt a little uncomfortable about the man threatening to hex the girl).

The man seemed to even border on indulgent with the three; buying them ice cream they surely didn't need, agreeing to a trip to the Magical Menagerie, and even backtracking a little on his stance of "no familiars for Darla this year" as they walked away. Remus would have never thought it, but Snape wore fatherhood well. Perhaps it made him bitter, angry, and a bad person, but felt no happiness at the realization the troubled child and teenager he knew had become a good father. Snape had been without a doubt a Death Eater during the war and it was his cause that stole from Remus not only his friends, but James chance to prove he'd have been a good father as well – better, even as he'd fought for equality during the war.

For as good a parent as he was to his sister and daughters, it didn't matter. They were already rotten with a man like him raising them and instilling the same disgusting values he believed in in their young minds. In another, ten, twenty years they would be just like their brother and father; looking down on anyone born to less than magical families and stomping all over the dreams and ambitions of all who didn't have a wizarding surname.

So upset was he at the thought of another possibly half-dozen bigoted witches and wizards growing up to be a part of his world, Remus staggered to his feet. As he headed for Mulpepper's, Remus could not regain even an ounce of the joy he felt when he first came to Diagon Alley. When he finally had the Sleeping Draughts for his father clanking in the pocket of his patched-up robe some ten minutes later, he was all too happy to leave Diagon.

Remus wasn't sure he'd ever be able to come here again and feel anything less than disappointment knowing there were children like Snape's walking around; growing up ruined around him without more than a sliver's chance in Hell they'll be better people than their Death Eater and Death Eater sympathizer parents.

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 **I wanted to write an outsider POV fic on the Snape family for a while. It took me a bit to settle on having Remus be the "outsider" catching a glimpse of Severus with his sister and some of his daughters.**

 **Also, make sure to add me to your author alerts if you want to be quickly notified about new fics to the "Family Branches" series! If not, make sure to check out my profile on Friday. I will be uploading the first chapter to the next multi-chap in the series, _Summer Skeletons._ Fair warning, it opens with a death and is quite Darla-centric. **

**Thanks times a million for reading :)**


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